Daily Devotional For Monday, May 11, 2026
Good day and good morning Southside. For these devotionals, I am utilizing Scripture from the One Year Chronological Bible’s suggested daily readings. The readings all come from the Psalms. Today’s selection comes from Psalm 39:1-3:
“I said to myself, ‘I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say. I will hold my tongue when the ungodly are around me.’ (2) But as I stood there in silence—not even speaking of good things—the turmoil within me grew worse. (3) The more I thought about it, the hotter I got, igniting a fire of words:” (NLT).
Have you ever been falsely accused of anything? I have and the more the person falsely accuses you the more you want to respond in anger against them. I have had people attempt to publicly humiliate me as a pastor. They came with accusations and threats that they had certain people on their side and they even distributed packages of the supposed evidence to those people. I chose not to overreact because anger makes us vulnerable to sin. None of their accusations proved to be true and it all could have been eliminated had they done what Jesus teaches in Matthew 18:15-17:
“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. (16) But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. (17) If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector” (NLT).
Notice the first step is if you have a problem or a beef with any believer, the first action you are to take is to take it to that believer, not organize a lynch mob against that person. Failure to do this first is sin. Let’s say the person has sinned against you, but if you do not go to them first, then you sin. The last time I checked God has never and will never bless sin. There is a time and a way to defend ourselves and share the truth, but often, our emotions get the best of us, and we then sin in what we say or do.
The Apostle James talks about how challenging it is for us to tame our tongues in James 3:2, 7-8, “Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way . . . (7) People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, (8) but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison” (NLT). Once we understand our potential for evil to come out of our mouths, we might be more intentional to hold our tongues.
David is doing that in this psalm. That is the point in verse 1 above. Why did David choose to hold his tongue? Look at Psalm 39:8, “Deliver me from all my transgressions; Make me not the reproach of the foolish” (NASB). David was being punished by God for the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the sin of murder of her husband Uriah. Old Testament scholar Craig Boyles writes this:
“God laid David low to discipline him for his sins. And as David lay crushed under the weight of God’s punishment, wicked people laughed at him” (Source: Craig C. Broyles, Psalms, p. 188).
Now here is what I want all of us to notice here. David wanted to please God even when God was disciplining and punishing him. David was suffering for his sins, but he had resolved not to sin with his words or deeds. Old Testament scholar James A. Johnston writes this:
“When God disciplines us, we are tempted to get angry at him. Why should I obey God when He has done this to me? Instead of trusting Him, we might doubt that He loves us, turn our back to Him, and go deeper into sin. God disciplines us to make us more godly, but we sometimes harden our heart and sin even more. One of the signs of Christian maturity is that we want to please God even when we are suffering under His hand. This is faith in action. I love God through my tears. I believe that even this hard thing is for my good” (Source: James A. Johnston, Preaching the Word: The Psalms: Rejoice, the Lord Is King—Psalms 1 to 41, p. 398).
When Jesus was falsely accused, He held His tongue also (Isa. 53:7). When Jesus stood before Pilate, Pilate was amazed at Jesus’ silence. The Apostle Matthew affirms this in Matthew 27:12-14. The Apostle Peter affirms how silent Jesus was before His accusers in 1 Peter 2:23 also. Warning – we must never view Jesus’ silence as Him being stoic or intimidated or above it all. Jesus did not stand there like some hand-crafted idol with a smirk on His face. As human, He felt all of it but He held His tongue.
David makes it clear in verse 2 that as he stood there silently, the anger and turmoil grew in him like lava in a volcano. He was calm on the outside but churning on the inside. How did David keep his control and composure? He turned to the Lord in prayer. Pastor and author Charles Spurgeon, wrote this about David: “It is well that the vent of his soul was Godward and not towards man. Oh! if my swelling heart must speak, Lord let it speak with thee” (Source: Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, p. 215. We all have angry words we wish we could take back, but there is not one prayer I have prayed to God I wish to take back when I was asking God for His help.
Reflection Assignment: What words in the past have you said in anger you wish you could take back? Who comes to mind that has falsely accused you in the past? Did you defend yourself in a biblical way or did things go south? When has the Lord disciplined you and you were angry with Him? What have you learned from all of this and what would you do differently in the future?
Scripture To Meditate On: Galatians 6:1, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I am ashamed of some of the words that have come out of my mouth in anger against others. Please forgive me of my sin. Please forgive me when I was angry against You when You were disciplining me. Lord, help me to speak the truth in a loving way to others, especially when I am angry with them. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly